Despite increasing talk of market saturation, analysts for PiperJaffray said Tuesday they believe Apple Computer's iPod growth will continue at around 30 percent year-over-year.
While noting that Apple has sold 68 million iPods in the past five years (of which 39 million were sold in the last year), the analyst maintained his belief that a "significant addressable market" remains.
"Although we consider it an overestimation, if we use the mobile phone market as a proxy for the Pod's addressable market, then the iPod's market penetration is [currently] about 27.5 percent," he said.
Over the next 6 months, Munster expects Apple's forthcoming iPhone and iTV set-top media device to account for two more significant drivers to the company's growth engine.
"The mobile phone market represents a large potential supplement to iPod sales," he told clients. "Music-enabled phones are gaining popularity, but Apple will be the first to offer a unified solution with the design and usability of the iPod."
Meanwhile, Munster sees iTV adding a fourth driver (behind Macs, iPods, and iPhone) to the growth engine: the living room, providing integrated operability between iTunes media content and televisions.
"Both the iPhone and the iTV represent initiatives that could add iPod-like growth to the Apple story," he said.
Munster, who maintains an "Outperform" rating and $99 price target on shares of Apple, said the iPhone and iTV could add 15 percent to the Wall Street's 2007 calendar year estimates for the company.






